


Rushing into Season

by ried (riiiied)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-08 21:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11655180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riiiied/pseuds/ried
Summary: Leo only planned to cheer up JJ after his break-up. And yet, he found himself in a relationship he wasn't sure he should've entered as quickly as he did in the face of an upcoming hectic season.





	Rushing into Season

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IdleLeaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleLeaves/gifts).



“I wouldn't have expected to see you around here at this time of the year!” Resting an arm on the table, JJ leaned forward towards Leo sitting on the other side.

Montreal, in the middle of spring. Leo had been visiting the workshop where he picked up and fitted his new skates beforehand – normally he would just get it sent to his home rink, but considering the boot problems he was having towards the end of the previous season and the important season coming up, his coaching team decided that it would be better to go up to where it was made. And the place also happens to be not far from where JJ usually trains during the off-season.

“Really, it's nice to see you again so soon. The Olympic season really does bring big surprises, doesn't it?

Leo laughed. “You're exaggerating again. I just figured it'd be good to stop by while I'm here.”

Truthfully, it was a bit more than that. JJ's engagement hadn't been going too well as the end of the previous season approached, and it fell apart not long after the off-season started. While he haven't actually met JJ in person since World Team Trophy, the much-reduced amount of posts he made, combined with overheard gossip, was enough for Leo to sense that JJ probably wasn't taking it well. And since he happened to be nearby, he figured it wouldn't hurt to check up on him an maybe even try to cheer him up a bit – even now, he was putting on his usual boisterous persona, but it felt somewhat forced.

“Besides, it's really just me going above the border for a bit. Don't you often go travelling during the off-season too?”

“Ah yeah, I do often do that," JJ said after a slight pause. "But this year I decided to use the time to spend more time with family, just going on smaller trips closer to home.”

“Actually, I spent a lot of time with my family too this break," Leo said, perking up. "Went with everyone to visit Grandma back in Mexico. It was a pretty lively trip.”

“Nice, nice!” This time, JJ's smile seemed more relaxed, and as if carried by it, Leo smiled a bit wider as well. “Next time, I want to travel somewhere farther too.”

“Last year didn't you go to -” Leo stopped himself just in time, remembering the photos with Isabella posted on JJ's feed during that time. Bringing that up now would defeat the whole point. “...sorry, don't mind that.”

“W-w-what are you apologizing for! Y-you asked a perfectly normal question.' JJ tried to brush it off with a laugh, but it only served to bring back the awkwardness. “A-anyway, why don't you tell me more about -”

Just then, a waitress came to their table bringing their order, and as she put down the plate, Leo's eyes widened at the cheesy, greasy pile on top of it. “...are you sure we should be eating this?”

“Nonsense,” JJ said without hesitation, already grabbing his fork. “You can't go home without trying this first. Besides, when else are you going to eat something like this if not during the off-season? We're going to be training to death for the next season anyway, what's a day of junk food compared to that?”

“Good point.” Leo couldn't say he wasn't curious about what 'the best poutine in town' would taste like, after all, and he'd also take anything that would take away from the awkwardness. Grabbing his own fork as well, he took up a bite-sized piece for himself. “Mm! This is great!”

“Right? I told you!” JJ said between stuffing his own mouth. “Anyway, why don't you tell me more about your trip?”

Leo answered with a smile – maybe his plan hasn't completely gone down the drain yet. “So, there's this funny thing that happened...”

* * *

“Who's this call from… JJ?”

Leo narrowed his eyes at his laptop screen, at the caller ID displayed. They exchanged IDs quite some time ago, but rarely actually called each other. Still, it wasn't like he had any reason to avoid picking up, and so he did.

“What's up?”

“Leo!” On the other side of the line, JJ was waving his hand exaggeratedly. “You safely back at home already with your new skates?”

Leo swivelled around in his chair to show a glimpse of his room in an equally exaggerated manner. “As you can see, yes. And with my new skates with me too.”

“Great, great! Always nice to know that you're not the next victim of airline incompetence when it comes to handling baggage!”

“You're exaggerating again,” Leo said with a laugh. “Anyway, is that all you called me for?”

“Oh, no, no. Actually...” JJ's expression mellowed out slightly, fingers interlocking on the desk in front of him. “I just wanted to say thanks for coming to see me the other day.”

“Eh?" Leo didn't expect to actually get acknowledged for it. "I didn't do anything -”

“I'm not that dense, you know?” His face was almost uncharacteristically stern as he said it. And with a more mellowed-out expression, he then said, ”Outside of my family, not many people have offered to do somethig like that that after… _that_.”

“Oh.” Despite the character he put on, JJ had never been too good at actually making friends, and with the way he reacted back when the break-up ftook place, Leo wasn't surprised if not many people had wanted to be the one to deal with that. Thinking about it, he wasn't sure why he wanted to, either. But nothing disastrous had came out of it, at least. “Well, it's no big deal. I had a great time, for what it's worth.”

“Ah, great, great!” After a moment of awkward silence, “Well, if you're home safely with your skates, surely you're on track for preparing for the new season! How's that going?”

Leo put up a grin. “Was this all a ruse for spying on what I'm going to do for the next season?”

JJ laughed in response. “You got me! Ah, not like I need to know it now anyway. My preparations are going smooth, and that way I don't have to worry about beating you or anyone else throughout the next season,” he ended, cocking his hands on his sides.

“Sure, King. Careful or someone might dethrone you, though. And that might even be me.”

From Leo's headphones, laughter roared out, only as clear as the choppy connection allowed it to be but with the genuine amusement audible anyway. “Bring it on, go break a leg! Well, not literally, it's no fun beating others just because they're not in top form.”

“That's what I've been planning to do, anyway.”

“Great, great!” After a pause, “Well, I shouldn't be holding you up for too long, then. Catch you later!”

“Yeah, see you,” Leo answered with a smile before the call cut off.

* * *

“Good show, eh?”

Leo turned back to see JJ approaching him. They had been performing at the same ice show, and Leo was just done changing.

“Oh, JJ. I thought you went back earlier?”

“Nah, I thought I should catch up with you first,” JJ said as he sauntered closer.

“We just finished skating on the same ice, though?”

“Oh, come on, you know what I mean.” JJ lightly jabbed Leo on the sides, earning a small chuckle from him.

The call right after Leo went back from Montreal hadn't been the last one, and they had been exchanging calls & messages quite regularly throughout that spring. Even when they were rinkmates, they hadn't been quite that close – even back then, Leo already occasionally felt that JJ was a bit… _much_ , and didn't exactly sought out his companionship. But somehow, it felt different this time – it was kind of easier and more comfortable, if he had to describe it.

“The audience sure went wild for your number, huh? Well, they did for mine too, even more so I'd say! But yeah, I get why they did – I also always like seeing you skate, you know?”

“Hm?” Now this was something unexpected.

“You always have your way with the music – actually listening to it closely, thinking about it with every mo… Of course, technique is important, but what's the use if you forgot about collaborating with the music? I get why you're such a hit with a lot of fans.”

“...huh.” Leo had heard similar things from coaches and fans, but it was different having a fellow competitor say it right in front of him. Especially not someone with a reputation for being haughty like JJ.

“Of course, I never forget to do all of that and I'm nailing my jumps better than you. And I still have the bigger fan club,” JJ continued, pointing at his chest.

“...what, and I thought here you were going to end with asking to join my fan club,” Leo laughed, the remark pulling him out of his earlier wonder. This is JJ, self-proclaimed King, after all. Of course he'd circle back to going on about how great he was.

“Hmm… If you join mine first!”

“As if!”

For a moment, the two shared a hearty laugh, which only led to Leo being caught even more off guard by what happened next: feeling a hand on his shoulder, Leo looked up to see JJ leaning into him, closing in, and before he could say anything JJ's lips were on his own. After what felt longer than the few seconds that actually passed, JJ pulled back, eyes slowly opening with a solemn expression in sharp contrast to Leo's jaw dropping open with shock.

Before too long, JJ's eyes shot open and the surprise started to fill his face as well. Waving his hands in front of him, he stammered, “Ah, this is – this – I didn't – s, sorry I did that without asking – I – I'm -”

“D-d-don't worry too much about it,” Leo answered, almost equally frantic. “Uh, er, everyone, um, everyone makes mistakes sometimes?” It probably wasn't the best way to respond, but he had to say something before things got more awkward.

“A-ah, yeah, right, everyone makes mistakes, even me.” JJ looked away, hand behind his head. “Yeah, that's right...”

Leo thought back of what could've lead up to that – the increased calls and chats between them through spring, that day in Montreal which started this all. He did do it with the intention of helping JJ get over his heartbreak, though doing it by being a replacement didn't occur to him. But thinking about it, it wasn't weird if he was looking for one. And Leo couldn't say he didn't enjoy all the increased contact he'd been having with JJ. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to go along.

“Actually.” Leo took one step closer to JJ. “You don't have to apologize.”

“Huh? Why”

When JJ turned his head again, Leo held onto his face, pulling him into another kiss.

* * *

The only thing they did that night after the show was grab dinner for just the two of them, and they haven't met in person again throughout spring. The calls and chats, however, became a daily occurrence.

“Congrats for your silver last weekend!”

“Thanks. Congrats for your gold, too.”

Just as the previous years, they had been attending small summer competitions near to their respective home rinks. For Leo, going for gold wasn't so much the point as getting to demonstrate his new choreography in a smaller-scale yet still competitive setting – better iron out all the kinks now rather than stumbling in the bigger international competitions.

“It's a pity, though, you could've easily won gold if you didn't double more than half of your jumps! You even almost nailed that one quad at the beginning of your free.”

“Making sure I don't injure myself is more important than a gold at a local comp at this point. Better wait it out until the chance to get the bigger prize comes around. Maybe even snatching away one gold from you sometime,” Leo said, ending with a playful grin.

“Hah! Come back when you're nailing your jumps and your choreo at the same time.”

“Don't worry, you can look forward to that in a few months' time.”

Leo had had relationships before, but not with a fellow skater. On one hand, given how much his schedule contributed to how his last one ended, it was nice that this time, it's someone who understood first-hand what he was doing. Still, the long distance part and the fact that they'd be actively competing against each other would need more getting used to.

“Anyway,” JJ said, after a bout of laughter. “I can't wait to meet you again.”

“To beat me to the top of the podium again?”

JJ scoffed. “Can't deny I'm planning for that too. But also… just to see you, you know?”

“...ah.” Competition aside, they _were_ supposed to be dating. Wanting to meet your significant other when you couldn't normally do so every day was just normal, and yet, it wasn't what came to his mind first. “I… I'm looking forward to it too.”

“Come on, don't be so shy.” The smile Leo saw on his screen was wide and bright. A little too bright for him.

“I'm not...” Not what? He felt he needed a rebuttal, but for what?

Thankfully for Leo, the silence didn't last long. “...you must be tired too, going right back to training after travelling for the competition. I'll leave you to go rest, then.”

“Ah… yeah. I think I am.”

“Love you.”

Maybe it was how lightly the words mean to him, or maybe it was precisely how serious he was about the commitment. Either way, it was yet another thing that Leo still hadn't gotten used to.

“...yeah. See you.”

* * *

“Is there no not making a scene with you?”

Holding tight onto him, JJ laughed. “Sorry, sorry. I'm just always really happy to see you.”

Leo was about to bring up an objection, but ultimately let it go. If anything, any clinging warmth was welcome when walking out on cold nights in Sapporo.

It was the night before official practice for the NHK Trophy started. Sharing only one assignment each for the Challenger Series and the Grand Prix Series, their previous meeting in Bratislava had more fanfare than Leo was used to – he was no no-name in the international circuit, but that kind of attention was different to what he was used to.

There were a lot in the relationship that he thought he should had gotten used to by that point in time, really. And yet, something still didn't quite sit right with him.

Steeling up his resolve, he turned his head to his right. This was the time to speak up – he couldn't afford to waste any more time worrying about this, especially not in such an important season.

“Hey, JJ?”

“Hm?”

“”You know. I've… been thinking. About us.”

“What about it?”

“I was thinking… maybe it's better to call it off.”

Those words got JJ to stop in his tracks. “What do you mean?”

“Well.” Leo mulled over his words. “I-it's the Olympic season after all, things are already hectic as it is, maybe it's better not to have to worry about something extra for now -”

“Did you want me to give you some space?” A pair of hands grabbed on Leo's shoulders. “Sorry if I'm bothering you too much, I… well… should I be calling you less for the remainder of the season?”

“It's… not just that.” Leo couldn't quite bring himself to look up straight. “It's also… maybe we shouldn't have decided to go into this so quickly. You hadn't even said anything about a relationship, yet I just decided that, yeah, that must be what you meant, let's do this. I could've said, let me think about it first, but I didn't. And it's not fair for you too that I wasn't thinking enough about what I was going to do.”

For a while, the two of them stood still, barely even noticing the cold. Then, “Have I been forcing you into this the whole time?”

“No! I told you, I did start it first -”

“But did you actually want this?”

“I… didn't not want it.” Which was true – he didn't find the idea objectionable at the time.

“'Didn't not want it'. Okay.”

“I – I don't – I did enjoy being with you. And I wanted to give you what you want, to help you feel better after… _that_. But… I really should've thought it through, this won't be good for us both.” Actually voicing his thoughts like this only served to force him to confront how distorted his priorities were – _yes, calling it off would be the better option_ he decided. Brushing off the hands off his shoulders without waiting for an answer, Leo walk ahead on his own. “Anyway, it's getting late, we should go back soon. Let's both have a good competition.”

“Wait -”

Ignoring the call, Leo sped up, nearly running without paying attention to where he was headed.

* * *

“Leo! What happened? Are you okay? You didn't hurt yourself too badly falling that many times, right?”

At the rush of questions assaulting him from his speakers, Leo pulled away from the screen. “Whoa, easy there, Guanghong, I can't answer everything at once. Besides, you did just fill up the chat already.”

“I wouldn't even have called if you had replied there,” Guanghong said back. “I just want to make sure you're not sulking too much.” He stopped to heave a deep sigh. “It's really such a pity, though. I thought this year we can actually go to the finals together.”

“You don't even know for sure yet if you're going, though.” Two bronzes wasn't a bad outcome at all, but it wasn't a guarantee for going to the finals yet.

“Well, no, but there's still a chance. You, on the other hand...”

“I didn't know you were the type to twist it in,” Leo tried to joke, but was only met with a frown. “There's still next year. It's not the end of the world.”

Guanghong still didn't seem placated. “If you actually skated decently and still couldn't podium, that's a bummer too but I'd have nothing to say. But that? And on top of that, all the things people are saying about you and _him_ -”

“Do we have to go into that too?” He was already deliberately checking social media much less because of it, having it brought to him, even if it was by a good friend, wasn't what he wanted right now.

“If it's one of the reasons you had such a splatfest? Yes.”

Guanghong did have a point. Letting something like that get in the way of his skating certainly wasn't good. But it was easier said than done.

“...I guess that's one good thing out of me missing out on the finals. I won't need to meet him again so soon,” Leo said, perhaps more to himself than to Guanghong.

For a while, Guanghong only stared at him from the screen, before his finger was suddenly flicked in front of his camera. “Virtual forehead flick.”

“Oww.” Leo held onto his forehead in exaggerated pain, playing along. “What was that for?”

“You'd never actually be happy about not going to the Grand Prix Finals. You've been talking about it ever since you started going senior internationally.”

“But that's -”

“And are you really going to go into the latter half of the season with that mindset? You aren't going to deliberately miss the Olympic team just because you don't want to meet _someone_ there, are you?”

“No way,” Leo answered immediately. “I'd have to wait four years if I miss it now, not even the biggest-headed jerk in figure skating is going to stop me from going.”

Guanghong seemed to be fighting a grin while trying to keep a stern face. “So you're going to kick ass at your Nationals, right?”

“You don't even need to ask.”

“Really?”

Leo lifted up his left little finger. “Pinky swear.”

No longer able to contain his smile, Guanghong returned the gesture. “If you're going to be doing fine now, I better log off then. My coach is going to work me to the bone again starting early morning tomorrow.”

“Sure. Guess I'll use the rest of my day off to sort myself out before going back to training tomorrow, then.”

He received a wide grin in response. “Usually I'd say, see you at Four Continents, but it's the Olympic year, so the Olympics it is. We'll meet at Pyeongchang, okay?”

“Of course. Night, Guanghong.”

With a wave from both side, the video cut off. With a loud sigh, Leo slouched down against the back of his chair. Another day to take it easy for now, at least, before he had to make sure he was completely focused on training and competing again.

* * *

Lifting up his head to the beep of his phone, Leo noticed the new chat message.

_'hey leo! you watched all of that, right?'_

Phichit, definitely talking about the GPF free skate that ended not long ago.

_'yeah, stream got choppy in the middle but i caught everything. you?'_

_'between dinky sites that kept freezing and vpn killing my internet speed everytime i turn it on none of my options were great, but i managed to catch everything! :D gh's already making a better gpf debut than me by 1 place XD'_

Leo smiled. _'who knew all those early morning practices were for yet another type quad, that's bold of him to debut it in gpf'_

A string of laughter emojis came back, followed by, _'thats our pal! pity about that landing on the 4lo tho, couldve gotten potato medal at least if he went full clean'_

The pause in messages afterwards was as if they both did a double take. The competition's actual fourth placer that year. Well, it wasn't like they could've avoided talking about him if they were going to talk about that year's GPF, Leo conceded to himself.

The next message came from Phichit again. _'have you talked to him again?'_

_'no'_

Honestly, Leo was surprised that JJ hadn't re-initiated any contact, given what he was like before. He started off being grateful for it, given that he didn't know how he'd respond, but he wasn't so sure anymore.

At least, Phichit seemed to be equally surprised. _'id have thought hed be a bit more pushy about it :O but maybe thats good if you wanted some space'_

_'idk, maybe i should've called back first, it's just going to be awkward later on this way right?'_

_'what do you want to say to him tho'_

Leo paused. What would he want to say, actually?

Not getting a response, another message came in, _'well youre the one who knows what you want to do, sort it out yourselves. youre both big boys and im not getting paid to be your couple counsellor :P anyway get back on your feet soon, don't miss any more big comps ;)'_

_'like you didn't just miss gpf yourself'_

The next few minutes were filled with back-and-forth GIF and emoji spamming, temporarily taking his mind off the topic. But when it was time to close the chat window and put down his phone, his mind came back to what Phichit said about him being the one knowing what he wanted.

It was true that there had been a couple or more occasions where Leo thought he should reach out to JJ again. But to say what? “Sorry for dumping you suddenly”? “Can we just be friends again, I miss talking about skating and music with you”? Was being friends even what he wanted?

In the middle of his thoughts, Leo somehow found himself tracking down a video of JJ's performance from the GPF which ended not long ago. (Some of these fans were so quick about uploading competition footage, and even in high quality, too.) Studying what your rivals were doing was going to be useful, everything else aside.

A lot of people looked larger when on the ice – those skates add quite a few inches. But there was something else about it with JJ. Maybe it was how much of his larger-than-life persona that he still brought on the ice, all those exaggerated flourishes he had time to insert in between all those elements. For everything JJ said about Leo's skating that one time, a lot of that applied to himself as well. None of those individually was strictly strictly unique to him, really. And yet, something about the combination just struck him differently.

Leo scoffed at himself. He was starting to sound like a lovestruck teen. For the latter, there was the explanation that he was a teen not long ago. As for the first part…

He shook his head, as if to shake the thought off, and quickly set his eyes on the list of related videos. If he were going to examine his fellow competitors, might as well go for the ones who actually stood on the podium as well.

* * *

It had been yet another day of rigorous training, and all Leo wanted to do was to collapse on his bed in his appartment.

Most days, his training had been decent, but decent wasn't going to cut it in a season as important as this. Once in a while he'd get even more distracted, and at one point, it had gotten so bad with him losing concentration during practice that his coach had to explicitly call him out on it. Having coached JJ as well for a while, she delivered a pointed pep talk about why it wasn't something Leo should worry about too much, but then again, if it were that easy to make himself not worry about it, he wouldn't be like this in the first place.

Just as he was thinking of lying down, he heard a knock on the door. He wasn't supposed to be expecting any guests today, but on the flipside he didn't have any reason not to answer either.

“Yes, who is – JJ?”

To his utter surprise, JJ was standing right in front of his doorway, his equipment bag dangling from his shoulder.

“How did you get here?”

“I flew.”

“...okay, that part should've been obvious. But why?”

“I wanted to meet you.”

“You could've just called.”

“Can't. Have to tell you in person.”

“That's - okay, whatever, just come in first, it's cold here.” Having ushered him in, Leo turned around again towards his surprise guest. “So, what are you -”

JJ didn't even allow him to finish his question before pulling him into an almost crushing hug with no words.

“Wait – urgh – let go a bit - “ Leo pushed away at him, managing to keep him at arm's length. “Tell me first what are you doing here. Is it even okay for you to be travelling around at this time of the year? Won't your coaches-slash-parents have anything to say about it?”

“I don't care if they do. I have to tell you this right now.”

“And what is that?”

JJ took a big breath. “I don't want to call it off.”

“It?”

“Us.”

“Oh.” There wasn't really anything else to expect, really. “I told you, we shouldn't be rushing it -”

“What have we rushed, actually? What did we do?”

“...we still put a name to it too quickly, though.”

“Even my previous engagement… we've been together from our school days and some people still said that it was too fast. We weren't even out of our teens yet, we still have our whole lives in front of us, blah blah. And okay, maybe they were right about that one because it didn't work out in the end, but you know what? I didn't regret all the time I spent with Isabella, all the things I did with her. And I don't want to regret anything with you, either.”

”...it might not work with me either, though.”

“Maybe, and maybe I'll regret it then. But I know I'd definitely regret it if I don't.”

Leo kept silent for a while. The opposite of jumping to quickly at an opportunity was to wait too long and letting it slip away. And as impulsive as JJ could be, maybe he had a point.

“Just tell me one thing, though.” JJ waited for Leo to meet his gaze again before continuing his question. “Did you regret getting together with me?”

“...no.” He might have been hasty in his initial answer that time, but there were more things he didn't regret by doing it.

"I really was happy that you did, you know. I probably was being hasty too because I was a bit lonely at that time, and I already know you and that a lot of our interests meshed well, so at least it shouldn't be that much of a disaster. But spending more time with you... I felt that I can actually get serious about this."

There was a bit of a pause before the reply came. "I... wasn't sure about it at the time. But now that I've had time to myself to think about it," he paused to properly look him in the eye, "I... I'd want that too. At least, I want to try."

“Then… it's okay, right?”

Guided by the finger on his chin, Leo fixed his gaze forward, and when JJ leaned in, he simply closed his eyes, letting him close the gap between them.

Moments after the kiss was broken, Leo plopped his hands on JJ's shoulders. “Okay. Now that that's sorted, time for you to go home.”

“W-what? You're not even letting me stay over?”

“It's not off season, and Nationals is coming up for both of us. I don't want to be held responsible when your parents discover that you're not there for practice tomorrow morning.”

“...but how?”

“Fly back?” When JJ only kept silent, Leo concluded, “...you don't even have a return flight yet.”

“Well… I didn't know how long it'd take to talk to you. Anyway,” JJ said as he cheerfully tugged at his bag, "I did bring my equipment! I can train with you just for tomorrow, like the old days -"

Leo instantly whipped out his phone. “We're getting you the first flight available.”

“Wait – what are you -”

“I'm just following your example of spontaneous decision making,” Leo said, not even looking up from his phone.

"Then can't you make the spontaneous decision of letting me stay over?"

"No," Leo said as he continued tapping. "I told you, I'm not getting held responsible when you don't show up at your rink tomorrow. Seriously, plan your actions better next time.”

“But if I never made snap decisions, there'd be a lot of things that would never have a chance of happening, right?”

“Heh.”

Sometimes, snap decisions have their upsides.

* * *

“You made it too! I was starting to worry that you wouldn't pick yourself back up on time.”

“Excuse me, I wasn't the one who sulked so much I had to take a spontaneous international flight without a return ticket.”

The moment JJ showed up in front of their door, Leo's roommate had deftly excused himself with a wink. Their coaches would have a word if word of this wound up in their ears, especially considering the reputation of Olympic villages, but they didn't have to find out.

“Still, going up to my room just like that… what are your parents going to say?”

“C'mon, what's wrong with a little visit?” JJ draped his arm around Leo's shoulders. “I can just say I'm spying on the enemy if anyone asked.”

“Like anyone would buy that,” Leo said with a chuckle. “Haven't you heard about what dens of depravity Olympic villages are?”

It took a while before the meaning sunk for JJ, upon which his face turned bright red. “That's – I'm not – o-of course we shouldn't be doing any of – of – _that_ right before such a big competition – actually, we shouldn't do it before we...”

“Before we what?”

“...never mind,” JJ said as he cast his gaze down in the other direction.

Leo grinned slightly – maybe it was a bit mean of him, but it wasn't often he got JJ to be this flustered. “Fine, fine, I won't ask. How're you supposed to spy on me if it was t his easy to turn the tables?”

“ _Leo_ ,” JJ whined, now latching onto him with both arms. “What else is there to spy on you, really. Everyone knows your programs, we talk about your training all the time -”

“How do you know that I'm telling you everything? That I'm not hiding anything else?”

“Oh, come on.”

Leo started laughing at that, although he did stop when JJ started actually pouting and frowning. Taking a deep breath, he leaned in into JJ's embrace. “Well, if there's no spying to be done, I don't mind just staying like this. It's nice.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Not that anyone will believe that this is all that happened, though.”

JJ frowned. “Whatever they believe, doesn't change what actually happened.”

“Well, only one way to prove that you didn't actually wreck me six ways to Sunday on the bed, then.”

“And how, then?”

Still leaning on him, Leo cast his gaze upwards. “By kicking your ass in the team event. And then again in the individuals.”

The answer earned him a scoff. “I don't know if that's such a foolproof plan. I do plan on doing just the same to you, you know?”

“I won't have it any other way.”

For a while, they stayed still just like that, until JJ piped up again. “Do you want to come visit again next spring?”

Leo's ears perked with interest. “Planning for the holidays already?”

“I'll take you to my parent's house, meet them there.”

“I already meet your parents every time we enter the same competition.”

“Not like that, like… a more formal re-introduction. Not as just another competitor.” After a bit of a pause, “Am I rushing things again?”

Leo shook his head. “I've had enough time thinking about it. And this is what I want. Also,” he continued as he sat back upright, “if we're doing the parental introduction, we should go to my parent's house after that too. Be warned that my siblings are a pretty noisy bunch, though.”

“Heh, never worry. I have my own experience with noisy younger siblings.”

“Sounds like we have a plan.” Getting up after a while, Leo started pulling at JJ's sleeve. “Anyway. Time for you to get back where you belong before anyone asks about where you are, and I'm pretty sure my teammates' good graces aren't going to last much longer either.”

“Already?” JJ said, exaggerating his disappointment.

“We'll be skating on the same ice for, like, the next week. And then there's going to be some days of free time before the closing gala. Come on, it's not like we're not used to being miles away from each other physically.”

“Isn't that exactly why we should make use of every second we're not miles away from each other?” Getting only a frown in return, he continued, “Okay, okay, I'm going. If I didn't know you better I'd say you didn't actually miss me.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “If I do this - “ he paused to place a quick kiss on JJ's lips “- would you stop doubting it?”

The surprise was quickly replaced by a grin. “Fine, fine, I get it. Well, have fun with your teammates for now, then. You won't have much chances to do so when we start grabbing the team event golds, after all.”

“You wish,” Leo said as he playfully shoved JJ out of the door. “Now go back before Mommy & Daddy start suspecting things.”

“Okay, if you insist.” JJ managed to sneak a quick kiss on Leo's cheek before he went on down the corridor, waving his hand. “Catch you later!”

Slightly taken aback, Leo waved back until JJ took a turn at the end of the corridor. Next spring was already looking packed, for different reasons than the previous one. But he shouldn't be pre-occupied with that for now.

He had medals to be won in the next few days, after all.


End file.
